Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 109674 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 548(@200wpm)___ 439(@250wpm)___ 366(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109674 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 548(@200wpm)___ 439(@250wpm)___ 366(@300wpm)
At least, that was what everyone did until we reached the second-to-last table before we’d reach the VIP booth. Three middle-aged men sat around the table. Several empty beer bottles and shot glasses covered the table top. The stench of alcohol was more potent here. One of the men with steel-gray hair and a scar on his cheek was groping a woman who looked to be around my age and was probably a professional, considering her very skimpy outfit and the disdainful look she gave her groper when he wasn’t paying attention.
They were guffawing, and one of them gave me a leering smile as he scanned me from head to toe. Before I could react, he grabbed my hand. “Babe, ditch the lad and take a real man’s dick.” His hand moved toward my ass. Nestore jerked me behind him, gripped the man’s throat, and catapulted him on top of the table. Beer bottles and glasses tumbled to the floor and splintered. Nestore pulled a dagger from the holster at his waist and slammed it down on the man’s throat. He panted, his face alight with rage. The man’s eyes were wide, his mouth parted as he gulped for breath with the knife sticking out of his throat. His friends jumped back from the table.
“Call the police!” the steel-gray guy roared.
The woman rolled her eyes and walked away from him, but not before she stole his wallet from the back pocket of his jeans.
“Nobody touches my wife. Nobody looks at her with anything but the utmost respect and deference, and nobody talks to her like that unless they want to enjoy my wrath.” He ripped the knife out of the man’s throat, and blood spurted out of the hole in a curved fountain. Shrieks and gasps sounded around us, followed by someone throwing up.
“If that makes you vomit, you’d better leave before our Madman from Los Angeles enters the cages,” said Remo with a twisted smile as he stalked toward us.
The two friends of the dying man stood around the scene with varying looks of shock.
“He killed him!” Steel-gray shouted, looking a little green.
Blood covered the table and the floor beneath it, and slowly spread out. A few droplets had also landed on surrounding tables, but most people simply waved at the servers to clean them up.
Remo chuckled. “You are new, aren’t you?” He stopped beside the bled-out man on the table. “One of you will have to pay for his drinks. Death isn’t an excuse to skip out on the bill.”
“We’ll call the police!”
A guy from another table touched Steel-gray’s shoulder. “Stop it, mate. You’re writing your death certificate.”
Nestore took a bottle of clear alcohol from another table and doused the blood-covered blade with it until it was clean, then he put it back in his holster and grabbed my hand.
“Nino,” Remo shouted to his brother, who had stayed seated in the booth and looked mildly annoyed. “Add another fight to the list. This asshole wants to call the police.” Two bouncers grabbed Steel-gray.
“If you win against the Madman, you’re free to call the police. I’ll even pay for your drinks,” Remo said with a grin that was on the verge of madness. “If you don’t, you’ll wish for your friend’s quick end.”
The man shouted and struggled, but the bouncers dragged him to the back of the bar, where the changing rooms were.
“Dammit. He’s really a madman!” the teenage boy who looked remarkably like Nino and Remo, but prettier and less messed up, shouted with a huge smirk.
“Come on,” Nestore murmured and tugged me toward the booth. He made me sit down beside Nino, who gave me a brief nod before he turned to Nestore. “You’re disturbing my schedule.”
“I can kill him in the changing room, then you don’t have to worry about squeezing in another fight.”
Nino waved him off and moved his finger over a list on his tablet. “Remo would be intolerable if he didn’t get his will. Kill him in the cage, but make it quick. It’s a waste of time. Nobody will bet on him.”
I blinked at his analytical tone. Fabiano shook his head and downed a shot glass of a clear liquid. “I know why Remo expects you to fight more often than the rest of us. You are his version of entertainment.”
Remo and the teenage boy joined us at that moment. The younger guy sank down across from me and narrowed his eyes in thought. “Now I get why he chased you for two years—”
“Don’t say anything else, Savio,” Fabiano hissed and shoved Savio’s shoulder. “Are you daft or didn’t you see what just happened?”
“He wouldn’t kill a Falcone.”
Remo sank beside his young brother. “He’s batshit crazy, so he might. I would kill him for it, but it wouldn’t save your annoying ass, so shut up and chase another skirt.” He pointed at the girl who had stolen Steel-gray’s wallet and was enjoying a beer at the bar. “The whore’s not busy. If you need to stick your dick into a hole, pick her.”